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dOOMY: Weird cracks in music with RMClock enabled
dOOMY
Junior Member

Posts: 1
From: Windsor, ON
Registration: Feb 2006
posted February 07, 2006 02:49 AMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
Hello.
First of all... this program (RM Cpu Clock) is extraordinary! I'm looking forward to the PRO (non-free) version of it!
Unfortunately I have a small issue that I'm sure it's related to it. I can hear cracks in the background when listening to mp3s and running in the meantime some relatively CPU intensive applications (like archiving, benchmarks, etc). These cracks are usually not really loud but are annoying for sure. I tried all input/outputs options in Winamp/Foobar as well as digital/analogue output from my soundcard (into a Marantz receiver) with absolutely same result - still cracks in background ONLY when music (mp3) playing and ONLY when doing CPU intensive things. As soon as I close RMClock, cracks go away.
Details about my system:
Opteron 165 overclocked to 2.7GHz, 3 steps in RMClock (1200 w/0.9V, 1800 w/1.1V, 2700 w/1.35V - all voltages have +113% from the BIOS)
DFI NF4 Ultra-D motherboard
2 x 512MB Ram
4 HDDs
and Chaintech AV710 soundcard.

Is there something that can be done from the software to get rid of this annoying issue? Any settings, etc? Is anybody else having this issue?

Regards and thank you,
dOOMY

Hannibal
Junior Member

Posts: 11
Registration: May 2005
posted February 22, 2006 05:12 PMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
all voltages have +113% from the BIOS !!!!!

lnminente
unregistered
posted February 23, 2006 09:25 PMedit • reply w/quote • IP
Try to put the priority to high in your mp3 player... i use process lasso
Have luck

lnminente

Nicolai de Haan
Junior Member

Posts: 1
Registration: Mar 2006
posted March 03, 2006 01:48 AMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
Hi. I had the same problem (on RMClock 2.0):

Sound crackling when CPU changes state (using Performance on Demand) but when running constantly 4x or 10x the sound works perfectly.

My CPU is overclocked as well, A64 3800+ at 10x260MHz. I have not changed voltages.

I suspect the problem has something to do with Northbridge to Southbridge multiplier having to adjust when CPU state changes but it's just a guess...

Now I am trying out RMClock 2.5 - will post if anything changes.

Apart from this problem I am very impressed with the program

Nicolai de Haan
Junior Member

Posts: 2
Registration: Mar 2006
posted March 03, 2006 03:20 AMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
Problem seems fixed in 2.5 for some reason

Undesirable
unregistered
posted March 11, 2006 02:59 PMedit • reply w/quote • IP
It isn't fixed for me in RMClock v2.5. I have an Audiotrak ProDigy 7.1 LT sound card, if that makes any difference.

Dmitri Besedin
Member

Posts: 868
From: Moscow
Registration: Apr 2003
posted March 13, 2006 02:30 PMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
Nicolai de Haan
Undesirable

Well, nothing has been done in 2.05, as this seems to be a hardware problem and I can't really see the software solution to it.

Undesirable
unregistered
posted March 15, 2006 09:17 AMedit • reply w/quote • IP
Okay, thanks. Have you any idea what may cause this with the hardware?

Dmitri Besedin
Member

Posts: 891
From: Moscow
Registration: Apr 2003
posted March 21, 2006 10:39 AMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
Undesirable
Have you any idea what may cause this with the hardware?

Can't tell for sure, but I'd think about the chipset/HTT links connection not being optimized quite well.

pyro9219
unregistered
posted March 23, 2006 03:14 AMedit • reply w/quote • IP
Try backing your HTT multiplier down to 800 (or 4x) instead of 1000/5x. If that doesn't work, I'd also suggest you check which pci slot you are using and verify it has a dedicated IRQ. Modern soundcards generally run happier when not sharing an IRQ. The IRQ table is located inside your motherboards manual. If you have a shared port, either disable the shared item(sometimes features like raid that aren't being used), or move the soundcard to test this.

justme
unregistered
posted March 23, 2006 07:21 AMedit • reply w/quote • IP
I had the same problem before I use RMClock and let the drivers do cool'n'quiet (I have an NF4 chipset too). It happens when the CPU load changes (say from 5% to 35%), not necessary a state change. I also notice the problem become worse if I install nVidia's IDE drivers.

Now, I use RMClock the problem seems to have gone away or at least not noticeable (I don't know if it's RMClock cause it to go away or not ... I was pretty frustrated and change a lot of stuff :p).

I'm pretty sure RMClock is not the cause of clicks; I suspect is a hardware problem.

pyro9219
unregistered
posted March 24, 2006 12:57 AMedit • reply w/quote • IP
The reason I suggest you check for IRQ sharing, is because often popping or crackling is caused by line noise from either a network card, hard drive, video signal, or other commonly active hardware that is going through at the same time.

Eternal
unregistered
posted March 25, 2006 04:53 AMedit • reply w/quote • IP
Some CPUidle users report the same issues (weird cracks in sounds)
http://www.cpuidle.de/faq.php#audio

pyro9219
unregistered
posted March 25, 2006 05:55 AMedit • reply w/quote • IP
[q][b]Eternal[/b]:
Some CPUidle users report the same issues (weird cracks in sounds)
[url=http://www.cpuidle.de/faq.php#audio]http://www.cpuidle.de/faq.php#audio[/url][/q]

They didn't go into as much detail as I did, but what they mention about using one soundcard over the other is for irq conflicts. Overclocking in general will add line noise in the system bus for any component the data flows to. Sometimes, you can even help reduce the line noise by turning off Spread Spectrum in the bios. You can also try removing USB devices since they will add line noise with the extra data transmissions, especially if you use onboard sound.

Undesirable
unregistered
posted April 02, 2006 10:14 PMedit • reply w/quote • IP
Well, thanks for all your suggestions. I upgraded to a Creative X-Fi "Xtreme Music" sound card, and put it in the same PCI slot. All the crackles are now gone when using RMClock.

nospam
Junior Member

Posts: 1
Registration: Apr 2006
posted April 15, 2006 01:32 AMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
Try this:

1. Enable RMClock with P state transitions.
2. Play a song.
3. Open task manager and sort by CPU utilization with the top user at the top.
4. Open a DOS box and type "dir /s c:\"
5. Watch RMClock's CPU use go to 60+%, your mouse freeze, and your audio glitch repeatedly.

I just found this now. No wonder I've been having so many audio glitch problems. I'm back to AMD's CPU management utility (which does not exhibit this problem, but alas does not give me RMClock's fine-grained control) until the RMClock folks fix this.

Dmitri Besedin
Member

Posts: 926
From: Moscow
Registration: Apr 2003
posted April 18, 2006 06:07 PMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
nospam
I'm back to AMD's CPU management utility (which does not exhibit this problem, but alas does not give me RMClock's fine-grained control) until the RMClock folks fix this.

Do you really consider this being an RMClock problem but not the hardware problem?

nospam
Junior Member

Posts: 2
Registration: Apr 2006
posted April 18, 2006 10:11 PMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
[q]nospam
I'm back to AMD's CPU management utility (which does not exhibit this problem, but alas does not give me RMClock's fine-grained control) until the RMClock folks fix this.

Do you really consider this being an RMClock problem but not the hardware problem?[\q]

I do not understand how this could be a "hardware problem". It occurs only when running RMClock and is 100% reproducible for me. Have you been unable to reproduce it?

Dmitri Besedin
Member

Posts: 932
From: Moscow
Registration: Apr 2003
posted April 20, 2006 06:15 PMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
nospam
I do not understand how this could be a "hardware problem". It occurs only when running RMClock and is 100% reproducible for me. Have you been unable to reproduce it?

No, I wasn't able to reproduce it in any kind. The conditions you describe - running the task manager in this mode (causing frequent graphics refreshes) and "dir /s c:" are both likely to generate a lot of interrupts. Obviously, this is what your hardware is not handling well when the CPU is doing the P-state transitions. Not sure why it doesn't happen when you run the AMD utility, though.

Leak
Junior Member

Posts: 5
Registration: Apr 2006
posted April 20, 2006 07:25 PMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
Well, I've got similar audio problems, but when I set "Good Phase Error" in RMClocks "Advanced CPU Settings" page to 15 or 8 us (from the default of 100) they're gone...

nospam
Junior Member

Posts: 3
Registration: Apr 2006
posted April 21, 2006 03:03 AMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
quote:
Dmitri Besedin:
nospam
I do not understand how this could be a "hardware problem". It occurs only when running RMClock and is 100% reproducible for me. Have you been unable to reproduce it?

No, I wasn't able to reproduce it in any kind. The conditions you describe - running the task manager in this mode (causing frequent graphics refreshes) and "dir /s c:" are both likely to generate a lot of interrupts. Obviously, this is what your hardware is not handling well when the CPU is doing the P-state transitions. Not sure why it doesn't happen when you run the AMD utility, though.

This is interesting. I have found that RMClock uses excess CPU only if the DOS box running "dir /s c:\" is viewed normally. If I minimize it, RMClock uses very little CPU. When RMClock is in high-CPU mode, its first thread uses almost all the CPU, and often can be found executing code at RMClock.exe+0x1fedf. I don't have a debugger handy to determine what that code does, but I am using RMClock 2.0, so I hope you can figure it out.

Another clue: the excess CPU usage occurs even without running task manager.

Finally, I have located another audio glitching mechanism unrelated to RMClock: the "Power Save Mode" setting for my Broadcom WiFi chipset. I had it set to "fast". When I set it to "disabled", the dropouts disappeared (except when running something that displays lots of text in a DOS box).

Thanks for looking at this.

Dmitri Besedin
Member

Posts: 934
From: Moscow
Registration: Apr 2003
posted April 24, 2006 07:20 PMprofile • edit • reply w/quote • IP
nospam
This is interesting. I have found that RMClock uses excess CPU only if the DOS box running "dir /s c:\" is viewed normally. If I minimize it, RMClock uses very little CPU. When RMClock is in high-CPU mode, its first thread uses almost all the CPU, and often can be found executing code at RMClock.exe+0x1fedf. I don't have a debugger handy to determine what that code does, but I am using RMClock 2.0, so I hope you can figure it out.

OK, this info should be helpful. As I already said, I wasn't able to reproduce this problem, but anyway, I'll check out what kind of code is located at this address.

Finally, I have located another audio glitching mechanism unrelated to RMClock: the "Power Save Mode" setting for my Broadcom WiFi chipset. I had it set to "fast". When I set it to "disabled", the dropouts disappeared (except when running something that displays lots of text in a DOS box).

Once again, these all are the interrupt handling problems, that is, the hardware problems

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